TechStuff Stares at Laser Eye Surgery

ones in the robot Wars. Nice. Thank you. Yeah. Today we're going to talk about laser eye surgery. We've had some people ask us about laser eye surgery and what goes into it and exactly how are leasers used in the process. But I think that's a record for your use of that version of lasers. Yeah, and so we're going to, uh, we're gonna kind of break it down and talk about it goes into a laser eye surgery procedure.

And we should also mention I should mention that I am very close to someone who has had laser eye surgery, not right now, not like physically. I was going to say my wife. My wife had laser eye surgery, um, and she has been very happily moving around without the you need for glasses for several years now. Um. And it was very impressive to me because my wife is not the sort of person who typically likes people, uh

you know, mesballs exactly. Yeah. She's that's not high on our list of things to do today, but she did it anyway. And we're going to kind of talk about the process and what you have to do in order to get laser eye surgery and what's actually being done to you. Yeah, and I think probably the best place to start is speaking of eyeballs, with the eyeball itself, yeah, and why you might need laser eye surgery in the

first place, right, Uh. To to to understand this discussion, you have to have at least a basic geography of the eyeball. So let's talk a little bit about the eye. So, so your your eye. The outer coating is this sort of tough outer coating called the sclera, and that's sort of what keeps the eyeball in its shape. It's it's kind of the the well, it's just it's the outer layer.

And then part of this outer layer about I think one sixth of it is the cornea, which is the clear outer layer that goes over the part of your eye where light actually passes through to get to you know, your eyeball. So the cornea is, uh, it's kind of like a window in a way, or if you want to think of it like a a tablet device or something. It's the gorilla glass. It's on the outside that texts the the the innards, and then behind the cornea. Well, first of all, you've got the sort of a watery,

clear liquid called the aqueous humor. Yeah, this goes back to the old humor's uh idea that dates back centuries where we used to think that our bodies we were like we're governed by a well, a small group of various liquids called humors. We've somewhat developed beyond that at this point, although I do think it's it's funny that even now we are referring to this particular liquid as a humor. Yes, so, so the aqueous humor, it's it's

this clear, clear liquid that's behind the cornea. It's also in front of the iris, and there's a little bit behind the iris as well. So then that leads to the question, what then is the iris. Well, that's the that's the color part of your eye. So for example, my iris is blue because it lacks a certain amount of pigmentation, which makes it a blue color. My wife's eyes are brown. And uh, this is the part of the other acts as like an adjustable diaphragm around the pupil.

So the pupil is that's the dark center of your iris. That's the little opening actually that allows light to pass through, right, And of course that's the part that the uh enlarges or get smaller depending on the amount of light in the room. Yeah, it's it's it's really an ingenious kind of approach. Really. It's it's the same sort of thing that we do with cameras when we have an aperture, you know, the aperture of a camera. And you may remember this if you listen to our our podcast about

slow motion. We talked about the aperture quite a bit. Uh. That's what allows you to adjust how much light comes in through the camera's lens and hits the sensor. Uh, same sort of idea here. The iris is what will expand or contract around the pupil and thus control the amount of light that comes in. So if you walk into a dark room, then the it's going to the the iris is going to allow more light to pass through.

It's going to allow more of the pupil to be exposed so that you get more light so that you can maneuver through because you're gonna be able to you need to be able to see if you're in a really bright environment. In order to protect the eye, that diaphragm is gonna close around the pupil to restrict the amount of light that comes in. Right, and of course UM there there's more than one UM analog as far

as the eye and a camera shut. We were talking about cameras not too long ago where we we talked about the lens and how light passes through the lens to the film on the other side, or or an image censor in the case of a digital camera. Well, in the eye, you've got the retina, which is um if you will, on the on the back side of the eye, which is what records the image as as the light comes through the pupil. Right, You've got you've got the pupil, that's the aperture. You also have a lens,

right behind the pupil. Right, So the lens, the lens is what is focusing that light, directing that light so that it it hits the focal point ideally, which is the retina. And the retina contains certain kinds of cells, rod cells and cone cells. These are light censoring light sensors. Essentially, Um, he sells sense the presence of light, and uh, through a chemical reaction, send that information to your brain and

then your brain says, hey, I recognize that that's a puppy. Also, at interesting point, if you weren't familiar with this, uh, the image that you see when you're looking at something when it hits your retina, it's actually inverted, just as it is in a camera. But yes, that's the So this, this is the basic part of the eye. Now, what happens when something is just not quite right? For example, Uh, Chris, I don't know. Are you near sighted or far sighted?

I am myopic. I am also myopic. That means we are both near sighted, and since we both have our our glasses off at the moment, we're both a little blurry. So myopia means that the focal point is hitting. Uh, it's it's hitting before it gets to your retina. So inside your eye there's a you know, the light is being directed by the lens to your retina. Uh, those the points of light are all converging, right, and that

point of convergence is the focal point. Now, the focal point for those with myopia is in front of the retina. It's not hating the retina just right. So that means that when we start looking around things, things tend to be the further way things are, the blurrier, they tend to be. Yes. Um, Now, this can happen through various uh, just well, irregularities. There could be irregularities in the cornea that can cause this to happen, or in the lens itself,

or it could be that the eyeball itself is elongated. Yes, so that the you know, if the eyeball was not elongated, the focal point would be right there on the retina where it's supposed to be in Everything will be fine, but the eyeball has been stretched. Nice sound effect, thank you, doesn't necessarily Jonathan Strict lines, it doesn't necessarily mean that someone's actually gone in there and stretch your eyeball. It

just means that that's kind of the way it developed. Um, now far sighting this, which is a hyperopia hyperropia, thank you, I'm glad you're ready for that. One's ready? Yeah, hyperopia. You've got the focal point that's that's actually behind the retina, so when the lights hitting hitting the retina, it's not converged on that point like it should be. And uh, hyperopia,

if you're hyper hyperopic, would that be correct? Hyperopic? Then that would mean that you know, you would the the closer something is, the more out of focus it is, the further away it is, the clearer it is. Also in addition to being myopic, I also have an astigmatism, I too have an a stigmatism. I think he's just just you know, doesn't want me to have one more than he does. I only have one. Do you have to know? I'm saying, are you and have an a stigmatism?

Me too? Me too? It just it happen anyway. And and an a stigmatism, Um, you have a difference in the shape of your cornea or the lens. And basically what happens is it creates in effect two focal points within your eye. UM. And so basically that sort of confuses the way the light is traveling inside your eye, and that um, you can have, as we were both pointing out just a moment ago, you can have uh

an a stigmatism on top of another eye condition. Yes, it's it's really an uneven curvature of the cornea or or lens, and yeah, it's it. It can cause problems. So the thing is that the humans are clever. Yeah, and we figured out a long time ago that if you use a lens of glass and it's curved just the right way, the curvature of the glass us can direct light so that it corrects for these problems. I can't imagine the amount of trial and error it took

to be able to figure this out. But to correct your your vision, you have to, you know, take into account what the focal point is doing uh inside your eye. So with it's a little bit different between myopia and uh and hyperopia. But anyway, the curvature of the lens depends upon the condition, right, you know, if it's going to be a concave lens for one and a convex lens for the other, And honestly, I can't remember the

one from the other. I guess I could stare at my glasses long enough and try and figure it out. But um, but the point being that that's what's going to direct the light the right way into your eye so that it corrects for whatever problem you already have. And then, of course, well what if we didn't want to wear glasses, what if we wanted something where it wasn't you know, this this pair of frames sitting on

our face. Well that's when we started to come up, well, we could maybe make a lens that could sit directly on the eye and do the same sort of correction. It's going to require a more precise approach because it's going to be a much smaller lens that by definition, I mean you can't have an enormous lens shoved into

your eye and expect any sort of comfort. So that's where the contact lens idea came from, where we started to kind of get you you apply these same kinds of thought to a thin lens that could fit directly on top of the eye. But then we thought, hey, wait a minute, we're really just talking about lenses here. Even even the cornea can act somewhat as a lens.

The cornea on your eye itself directs light. So what if we were to reshape the cornia so that it corrected for whatever problems we had as you know, as far as vision problems are concerned. Uh, what if we just did that, then we wouldn't have to wear contact lenses or glasses or anything. And that's where the idea

for corrective surgery comes from. And um, and at its very most basic level, what correct what this laser eye surgery is doing is it's altering the shape of the cornea so that directs light in a way that corrects for whatever vision problem you have. That's that's the basic you know, when you get down to it, that's what laser eye surgery is all about. So it's just it's that same principle behind grinding a lens so that you can see, you know, in a pair of eyeglasses, but

now it's applied directly to our biology. It sadly does not mean you will actually end up with laser shooting out of your eyes, well at least not for most people. No, I would think that's a pretty rare side effect. So, yeah, where would you like to start with laser eye surgery? Well, I was going to talk about sort of the process you have to go through before you get laser eye surgery done, and then we'll get into what is actually

going on in a laser eye surgery session. Yeah, because frankly, it's it's reminds me of a lot of life events. You know. The actual event itself doesn't really take all that long. Laser eye surgery only takes a few minutes. It can take less than half an hour total um. But there is quite a bit of preparation that needs that you need to go through beforehand to make sure that everything goes smoothly um and preferably not panicky, which is the reason that I haven't had it done. Yeah.

So the first thing you have to do is you have to go through and we're talking about a reputable laser eye surgeon. This is a good time for us to point out there are a lot of different facilities out there that offer laser eye surgery services. Do your research. Yes, that's a great idea, because I know for a fact that there are there's a few in Atlanta that have a reputation for being less than honest, Like they'll the what the they do is they'll offer this amazing sounding deal.

And of course we all know the phrase it sounds too good to be true. It was probably on the internet. Um, and the deal, the deal would be something like two d I, which is about a tenth of what some eye surgeries cost, you know, and you're thinking, wow, that's amazing, and then you know it's got an official sounding name

and it's gonna be great. And then if you actually start doing some research, you'll see that there's often a lot of bait and switch involved where you'll go in and they'll do this initial I exam and then they'll say, oh, well, in your case, because you have this particular you know, condition or whatever, it's actually gonna be closer to undred per eye or and and just that alone is a you know, first of all, that's kind of a shady

business practice. But beyond that, you don't want, you know, you don't know how far their ethics extend into say, not being a good doctor. So so in other words, do your research. Yeah, quack alert. So, assuming that the the facility has got a good reputation, uh, you go in, you would get a very thorough eye exam, probably more thorough in fact, I would are definitely more through than you would get going to just get a pair of glasses or contact lenses. I'm sure yes, because they have

to be they have to be very careful. Um, if you're going to go for for lasic, for example, UM, your eyes have to fall within a certain set of parameters and they can treat myopia, hyperopia, and a stigmatism. But it has to be within a certain range. Now, of course that's measured in die opters. Um. That's that's kind of the degrees of prescription. So you know, if you hear someone say, oh, I've got minus three in this I and minus two point seven five in that,

I the myopic. Yeah, their myopic. Yeah that a negative number means myopia, a positive number is hyperopia. And then um, a stigmatism can go either way. Yeah. Now, we we do have a great article on how lasic works on the website. Um and according to the research in there, UM, myopia treatable with lasic can be from negative zero point seven five to negative ten, which is that's a big,

big range. And and I should also add that depending on which doctor you go to, they may tell you that if your eyesight falls within you know, a certain range, like saying, let's say the negative point seven five to say negative one point five. They might say, you know what, the the experience you're going to have, the the new vision you're going to have, is may not be so dramatic as to warrant laser eye surgery. Again, a reputable UH clinic is going to tell you if the the

result is going to be truly noticeable or not. For some people, it may not be. I for at least years ago, when my wife could have done I was right there on the the border like like, you know, I could have gotten it done, but it may not have been that dramatic. And when you're talking about that kind of expense, really do you want to go in for that. My wife, however, she had gotten to the point of vision where they no longer use the eye chart. They would say how many fingers am I holding up?

So she was an ideal candidate. Well you have to hold some up? Um? Yeah, whoa, you need some surgery. Hyperopia that they can treat with lacing ranges from plus zero point seven five to plus four and then they can treat a stigmatism for plus or minus zero point seven five to plus or minus four. Um. So that's a pretty a pretty decent range of vision that they can they can correct. Um. They also look at the cornea thickness. It has to be five microns or greater UM.

That will explain why the cornea has to be at least that thick coming up. And that's going to be the the squiggly squirmy part where we're both like, okay, so here's what happens next. I'll be going out for water, Chris, Chris might Chris might go bye bye for about for about five minutes that thud. Yeah, But there are other types of laser eye surgery that you can pursue if your cornea is not of that thickness, if it's if it's thinner than that, there are other types of laser

eye surgery you can look into, so to speak. Um. And then your pupil uh should be no more than six point five millimeters in diameter UM, although you know there are advances now that allow you to work with up to eight point five UM. Also, so if you've been Diesel from that that movie where he's got those huge corneas, the huge pupils, that just wouldn't work. Lady Gaga from that that one video, Yeah there you go. Yeah, those those folks, I'm sorry, or practically any Disney character,

because I mean, have you seen Tangled. That girl's eyes are huge. Yeah, Sailor Moon's not gonna have it done either. Um. So yeah. And also if you're pregnant, have heart problems, severe heart problems anyway, Um, if you're taking drugs such as medicine for migraines or acne, um, you have a condition called kara to conas. I'm hoping I'm pronouncing it right. I didn't check the pronunciation, but that's a thinning of

the cornea condition. And um, actually I might be Uh, I might not be eligible either because certain conditions like autoimmune diseases, one of which I have, UM, vascular disease, different kinds of eye diseases, and diabetes. All these things might prevent you from going through with a lasic procedure. Um. So these are things that the doctor is going to have to talk to you about. Um, and I would

encourage history. Yeah. You need to be honest too, because you know, even though you may not want to wear glasses, uh, you know, this is serious business and you could end

up with results that you are not happy with. It can be complications as well, I mean even yes, you know, it could be that everything goes well, but uh, you have some complications during the healing process, and if your medical history means that you can't have certain kinds of drugs to to help that healing process along, that could be an even bigger problem down the road. So yeah,

it's very important. And then the actual exam, you're going to be looking through lots of different devices that are going to be measuring how your eyes are receiving light. And there's actually technically mapping out your eyes the inside of your eyes. Um. There's a thing called a corneal topographer. Yes, that's where they type on your eyes, right, that's a typograph back topographer. It actually maps the cornea, so it's

it's looking at the actual shape and thickness of the cornea. Um, and it's too uh to really determine exactly how the light is behaving once it hits that part of your eye. Um. There's also the pupilometer, which is another device that's looking specifically at your pupil I mean there's not a big

surprise there, right, you have a student in your eyeball. Yeah, and then the their software very powerful software, but working behind the scenes, that's mapping out your eye so that the surgeon is going to know exactly what sort of of adjustments they're going to need to make to your cornea in order for it to um to direct light the way you need it to be so that you don't have to wear glasses or contact lenses anymore. So it's it's pretty complex stuff. I mean, it's um pretty

fascinating to see. And also a laser eye surgery procedure often requires two people, a surgeon and a patient, well beyond the patient to people to actually to do the procedure. The surgeon and then there's usually a an operator who's working on one of the laser machines. And so now we've now we've talked about the process where let's say that you've gone through you've had your eye exam, you've done your medical history, and they've determined your what is

called an ideal candidate. Now that does not mean you are the perfect person to have had laser eye surgery. It just means that you fit those parameters that uh, you don't have anything outlying any of those parameters that would that would cause concern. It appears that it will work out. Yes, Uh, now is the time where you start to um to to actually go through the surgery itself. And I think I think we can walk through the

laser process because that's still fairly common. I mean that's that's actually probably one of the most common forms of laser eye surgery out there. But we'll also talk about how the other kinds are a little different. So, um So, first, when you arrive to get your laser eye surgery done, one thing that's happens fairly frequently is that they offer

you something to calm your nerves. Yes, because it turns out when a lot of people, when they're thinking they're going to be laying down on the table with someone shooting laser beams into their eyes, they get a little anxious. I can't imagine why. Actually, that's not the part that makes me anxious, but we'll get into that. Um So, you know it's the part immediately before the laser gets

shut into your eye. That would be the part. Yeah, that's the part where it gets I'll score me so and yeah, I mean basically they're going to set up an appointment when you do your prep work. I don't think that they actually would take you back immediately and go all right, you look good, let's go. No, No,

it's usually it's usually a day or two between. Speaking from my wife's experience, she went in and had the um the work that there up work done, and then it was a couple of days later after they had had a chance to really look at the data and they arranged for the time. And you also have to go there with someone else to drive you home. Yes, because you will not be able to use your eyeballs. Yeah for that. Yeah, because actually you're going to have

some limited eyeball use ately afterwards. You can't put your weight on them. Yeah, exactly. Um, use some eye crutches, So I crunches. Um are those apple products? Um? No,

it's not the lower case I E. I see. Um. So the next thing they're gonna do, once you're you're sure you want to go through this, of course, they also make you sign a waiver saying that you understand that there are things going on where they're gonna shoot lasers in your eyeballs and uh, there are risks involved with that, and part of this depends a lot on your cooperation, like still and and not running from the office. Screaming. Um again, I'm just imagining what would happen with me.

They assuming your your nerves of steel are holding, are holding, they will go ahead and put some topical anesthetic in your eyes. Yes, so this is to numb your eyes because they will need to touch them and uh. And once you're once that started to take effect, you're lead into the operating room where you lay down on a table.

It's usually a padded table and they position you so that you're going to be under the machine that goes ping and uh and and then they have to well, they have to secure your eyelids so that you're not going to be blinking. Yes, because you cannot blink, so they may be using usually a combination of things. There's usually some sort of tape that's safe to put on

your your eyelids to keep your eyes open. There's also a device that will sit on top of the bottom part and top part of your eyelids to keep those them stationary. Um. This looks a lot like the device that was used in a famous documentary called a clockwork orange. Um. Yeah, it's a little freaky. If you're looking at someone who's

getting this done. The eyelids speculum. Yeah. Yeah, it's to hold those eyelids in place, because of course, if you blink what the laser is going, it's gonna totally mess up the procedure. So they have to they have to stabilize and keep your eyelids from moving. Um and uh. They also put down a ring around your eye that that stops you from being able to move your eye around. You're you're looking directly up or directly straight straight ahead is the best way of putting it. Not up as

in your eyes are turned up, but looking straightforward. It's just because you're laying on your back, it just happens to be up. And then as they the next step is the squigly part. Are you ready, Chris, Okay, So they pull out the microcra tome Yes, see they have to. They're gonna put some marks on your cornea to identify where it is, whether they're where they're going to use

the microcarra tome um. Basically, when you're dealing with something as sensitive as vision, and you know, the professionals want to do a good job, they're going to want to be as accurate as possible, so they're going to mark your cornea to make sure that they use the microcarratone right, I don't even want to talk about it, Micart. What

it was. It's a surgical instrument. Okay, It's a blade, a very thin blade, and this blade is used to cut a flap in your cornia, which is then pulled back so that the laser can shape the corn This is this is this is entertaining and painful to watch. This is the part that grosses me out. I'm sorry. Okay, So yeah, so there's actually this and this is lazing. There are other versions of laser ey surgery that do not use this, and some of them don't even use

a microcarratone blade. They have a special laser that will cut this flap. But in lazing eye surgery, there is a flap that's cut and pulled back so that the laser can start to shape the cornea without that outer layer in place. And and so at this point, the the laser, which is um called an uh well it is an ex semer or x simer E x C I M E R. Actually did not look up the pronunciation. But this is the laser that does the actual shaping.

It starts to vaporize parts of the cornea. And what's doing is it's shooting ultraviolet UH blasts and the lasers in the ultra violet lank range, which means you can't see it, right, it's outside the range of human sight UM. And what it's doing is is exciting uh the molecules in the cornea to the point where the molecular bonds break down. So it's actually that's what I talk about when vaporizing. It's not heating the eyeball up. Actually, a

cool laser I expect you to break down. And when I mean cool laser, I don't mean that it's like super awesome, although it is. I mean it doesn't heat up the tissue. Now, remember earlier I mentioned that your cornea has to be five microns are greater when they start this procedure, and that's because when they're done using this laser, there has to be between two microns of thickness once they're done. Yeah, so there has to be enough for them to leave the proper amount once they're finished,

otherwise you can't do this. So now, now using this laser to vaporize these molecular bonds and to reshape your cornea. That's essentially the same thing on on a grand concept level as grinding a glasses lens. So that's gonna been light. The way way it's the same thing is just we're using lasers and your actual eye to do it, which is pretty phenomenally awesome. It's also kind of scary. Um not at the end of it. After it might take I don't know, seventeen to twenty seconds to do this, Chris,

because be okay, okay, yeah, per ie. Um. They then replace the flap back down on your eye and it heals. I mean, it sets down in place and is is healing as soon as it touches back down. That is one of the very cool things I think about that. Um. They the doctor will also probably put a little antibiotic on the flap just to make sure that there are no bacteria getting in there. Yeah, but but it maybe

it starts to to heal, which is pretty phenomenal. Um. The the whole process only takes, like I said, about twenty seconds per eye. Uh and uh. Usually when you're down there, you'll hear people talk about how the doctor told him to look at, say like a blinking red light. That red light is not the laser. That's just a light that let's focus folk. Yeah, you're supposed to focus on that while this ultra violet laser is blast in

your your cornea way. Um. And then once the flap comes down, you're usually you're given several different kinds of eye drops before you leave. Uh. There's a moisturizing eye drop, because after you get this process done, your eyes are gonna have a little bit of difficulty uh, generating the right kind of moisture to keep your eyes comfortable, so you're gonna have to actually endit. Eye drops in on

a pretty regular basis. In fact, the first couple of days, it's it's like every hour you've got to add eye drops, and then as the time goes on, you have to use them less and less frequently. And my wife at this point rarely ever uses eye drops, but for the first year she was using them on on a fairly regular basis, although that that schedule changed over time, like after the first three months, it didn't need to be as frequent, um, and now it's it's rare when she

needs them, but occasionally she does. Uh. And then you might also have antibotic eye drops that you might have to add every now and then. And some places apparently put give you a kind of gel that you put on the inside of your lower eyelids so that when you're asleep, it keeps your eye moisturized while you're sleeping. My wife, I don't remember her getting that, UM. I should have asked her before I left the house this morning, but I do not recall her getting that kind of stuff.

I do remember the other kinds of eye drops though. And then they of course schedule, as you know, a lot of surgical procedures. UM. They also schedule regular appointments, even even as as soon as the next day, to make sure okay UM. And then gradually as time goes on, uh,

you know, they check less frequently. You know, there'll be a year check up, but you know it's one day, and then they'll check the next week, the next month, UM, an increasing increasingly longer periods, just to make sure everything is healing the way it's supposed to, Just to make sure that there are um, that your eyes are doing what they're supposed to do when you're not suffering any ill effects from the surgery. Because in the case of I mean, there there are times when the flap can

get a wrinkle in it. Yeah, I was wondering if we're going to get into that. Yeah, that can happens like that. That can cause a little bit of blurry vision and may require a second surgical procedure in order to get it straightened out, so so speak. Um. Also, you know there's a possibility that they may remove too

little or too much of the corn. Yeah. Uh, yeah, they have to be That's why they have that's why they're doing that whole long pre ops sections so that they can determine that as precisely as possible to to reduce that risk as much as they can. And of course, again this also depends a lot on the patient. You have to be able to lay there and be still while your eye is being held open and lasers are being shot into it after someone's cut a flap in it. It's a little it's a bit of a challenge for

some of us. Um. Let's talk really quickly about some of the other kinds of laser eye surgery besides lazing. The one of the the precursors to lazing, and it's still in use in a lot of places, is PRK laser ice surgery. Or photo refractive care TEC to me, Wow, I didn't know I was gonna be able to say that.

In this one, they actually scrape away the outermost layer of the cornea with the laser and then reshape the tissue on the underlying surface of the cornea UM and then they have and then you have to allow the the protective layer that was scraped off to grow back, So there's actually a longer healing period with PRK than with lazing. They can use that process to h to work on near sidedness and a stigmatism at the same time, however,

which is nice. Yep. And uh, then there's lazac with an e. The lasic we're talking about is with an eye, but LAZAC is a slightly more advanced version of PRK that uses um alcohol and solution to soften and then remove the epithelium, which is that protective layer, the almost layer of the cornea. Yeah, LASAC is laser epithelial curatatamliusis Yeah,

I think I didn't mangle that terribly yep. And then there's epilasac, the modified version of that that uses a separator so that the because then in the traditional lazec you're actually removing the epithelium entirely, and epilasic you're creating a separator so that you preserve that epithelium and then replace it on the ice. So it's like you take the cover off, fiddle around a bit, and put the cover back on. It's probably a better eye surgeons out

there just love me for saying that. Um. There's l t K or laser thermo keratoplasty. Uh. Now that it's used mainly for far sightedness and a stigmatism, and in this case they actually are using heat. They're using the heat of a laser beam to shrink and reshape the cornea rather than removing it, so they're actually reshaping it.

They're pushing the stuff around as opposed to cutting it away. Um. And it's supposedly a much faster healing process than most other kinds of corrective surgery, and it's generally considered to be less invasive. So it's uh, that's an interesting approach. There's also there's a custom view lazic, conventional intra lazic, custom view intra lazic. These are all variations on the basic lasic approach. Basic LAZIC, and there are of course

complications with some of these. We mentioned some before. I've I've known people to undergo LASIC and complain of some problems with night vision where they see halos. There's a lot of that where everyone looks like master chief no. Um. Basically when you look at a light source, it looks like it has shimmering circle around it. Yeah. Yeah, especially things for like if you're driving at night and you'll know no halos around headlights, things like that. Or you're

sensitive to bright light. Yeah, yeah, you're light sensitivity. Especially for the first few days, it's probably gonna be a little, uh, a little rough. But for some people it just it stays that way. So like my wife, she wears sunglasses a lot more frequently than she used to. And uh for for some people too, I've heard that in some cases, uh, it is possible for your eyes basically to slowly regress to where they were before. Um. I don't know exactly

why that is. You know, I have read report works that that it happens. Um. But and you know, some people who have and you know, enjoyed the benefits of the surgery for years. And then there are others who gradually returned to uh to the way they were before. I'm sure that it probably since since part of the cornea has been removed, I would imagine that it's probably not as uh drastic change so it was. But I've

I've read that that that can happen. I would imagine if you have some sort of condition that continues to change the shape of your eyeball, that would be it would be a big problem because the focal point would constantly be changing then or gradually be changing. Yes, well, I think that wraps up this discussion about laser eye surgery, which I was it was interesting. I mean, it's an interesting concept. It's also I agree it's a little square mey. You know, they're I don't like the whole idea of

people messing with my balls. Well, not a lot of people are fall into that category, and it's not just us, um, But for the most part, I have heard very positive things about these eye surgeries. And you know, if it's something that sounds sounds good to you, now you know a little bit more about how it works. Um. And here's the other thing that's kind of cool. Again, if you go to a reputable clinic, they're going to actually explain how this works to you in very simple terms,

because they want to make sure that you know. Part of being an ideal candidate is being the kind of candidate is not going to freak out when you're on the table that rules me out, darn to al Right, guys, Well, if you have any uh anything you would like us to talk about, any topics you think it would be

particularly interesting, you can let us know. Shoot us an email that addresses tech stuff at how stuff Works dot com, or you can let us know on Twitter and Facebook are handled, there is tech stuff H s W and Chris and I will talk to you again really soon. Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The

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